The One Ball: Catch

What are you catching these days? Are you catching what is thrown to you? How do you catch something? Do you make it easy for others to catch what you are throwing their way?

There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart…pursue those. ~ Michael Nolan

A question of catching. The One Ball lends itself so well to catch. Do you focus more on catching or throwing? Stop and think about catching for a moment? Do you relax into catching or do you stiffen up? Are you concerned you might miss “the ball” or that you might drop it? Do you feel you are catching on or always trying to catch up?

Definitions. Let’s start with a few definitions of catch. Here are some common definitions for catch:

perceive with the senses quickly, suddenly, or momentarily

take hold of so as to seize or restrain or stop the motion of

get: succeed in catching or seizing, especially after a chase

overtake: catch up with and possibly overtake

be struck or affected by

check oneself during an action

watch: see or watch

When you think of catch which definitions are most at top of mind for you? Do you give enough attention and energy to catching?

How? Catching is difficult to explain, here is a short explanation fromHow to catch a ball by Karl S. Kruszelnicki

Practically everybody has thrown and caught some kind of a ball. Balls are essential to so many sports – but the weird thing is, we still don’t understand exactly how we catch a ball. Once a ball has been launched, any physicist can solve the equations that will predict exactly where the ball will land. But in a game of baseball, once we hear the crack of the ball on the bat, we don’t sit down and start solving a few differential equations – no, we immediately start moving on a path that takes us to where the ball will land. How do we do it? Well, according to one of the scientists who has tried to solve this deceptively-simple problem, catching a ball involves “physics, engineering control theory, physiology, kinaesthesiology, ethology, perception, and the study of expertise”

Catch of the week. How about making catch your catch of the week. You’ll catch on to catching by becoming more mindful of the act and attitude of catching. Who do you like to play catch with?

Catching employee engagement. In conclusion here are some connections to catching and employee engagement:

Ensure that employees are not always feeling that they have to catch up.

Make it easy for employees to catch the keys of engagement.

Ensure in conversations that you catch employees’ key experiences and ideas.

Find alternative methods to catching the state of employee engagement instead of an over reliance on surveys.

Don’t throw so many ball (tasks) at employees that they don’t know which ones they should catch.

Equip employees with the proper tools to catch.

Catch employees who are fully engaged and voice your acknowledgment and gratitude.

Start a positive engagement virus, instead of catching the common cold make employee engagement common — something easy to catch and hard to get rid of.